From September 25 to 30, 2016, the 16th World Congress on Pain (WCP), organized by the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), was held at the Pacifico Yokohama Convention Center, Japan. Song Xuejun, President of Chinese Association for the Study of Pain (CASP)/IASP China Chapter, a member of the Preparatory Committee of the Medical College, Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), an expert on pain medicine and a professor at the Department of Biology, SUSTech, attended the congress as the initiator, applicant and main organizer of the Chinese delegation for WCP 2016.

Prof. Rolf-Detlef Treede

hold the China Academic Symposium, and to be authorized to hold a WCP session,” Prof. Rolf-Detlef Treede, President of IASP and WCP 2016 and a German pain specialist, noted in his speech at the opening ceremony of the China Academic Symposium. Han Jisheng, Lifetime Honorary Chairman of CASP and a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences from Peking University, followed the symposium in Beijing in full process, and indicated that this is “a historical record and inspiring event” to Chinese pain medicine workers through a WeChat group of several hundreds members.

There were ten placards on the corridor to the conference hall of the Pacifico Yokohama Convention Center, presenting academic experiences and inspirational quotes of internationally renowned scholars who had been invited by the headquarters and Academic Committee of IASP to advocate the purpose of IASP, guide and inspire pain medicine workers. These placards are from countries such as Germany, the UK, Italy, the USA, China and India. Among these placards, two eye-catching ones are from Song.

Prof. Song Xuejun presides over the opening ceremony

Nearly 10,000 researchers, doctors and pharmaceutical technology researchers and developers in pain medicine and related fields from more than 98 countries and regions attended the congress. They demonstrated major academic achievements in the basic knowledge and clinical research of world pain medicine, as well as the progress in the concepts and technical approaches of clinical pain therapy.

Song presided over the opening ceremony of the China Academic Symposium and the Thematic Session of IASP on Cancer Pain Mechanism and Therapy, which was the highest-level opening ceremony aside from the opening ceremony in the main venue. Prof. Rolf-Detlef Treede; Prof. Noguchi, President of the organizer-Japanese Association for the Study of Pain; Prof. LaMotte, discoverer of vanilloid receptor pain function in Yale University; Prof. Ji Rurong from Duke University, and Prof. Fan Bifa, Chairman of Pain Clinician Branch of Chinese Medical Doctor Association delivered addresses.

Following the opening ceremony, together with five Chinese experts at the basic research and clinical research of pain medicine, Song gave a two-hour impressive academic lecture with focus on the neural mechanism and clinical therapy of malignant neuropathic pain (including the clinical therapy with Chinese characteristics that integrates traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine), which attracted great attention from the attendees who heated discussions.

During the congress, CASP’s executives led by Song held the first-ever working talks with IASP’s executives. Prof. Treede, incumbent President of IASP; Prof. Turner, President-elect and an American scientist; as well as D’Uvan, Director of the Headquarters Office of IASP attended the talks.

The congress fixed the principles, measures and schedules of IASP and CASP jointly delivering high-level international pain medicine conferences, academic and medical promotion campaigns against pain, international training on pain medicine research and other academic events; and facilitated China to host WCP 2017. IASP will fully support the China National Conference on Pain Medicine next July. All sides reached a consensus on initiating the all-round partnership between IASP and CASP, in a bid to make positive and fruitful efforts for the development and progress of pain medicine in China and the world.

The two sides of the working meeting have a photo

Background

International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP)

IASP is the most international academic body for the study of pain. Its official magazine Pain is the most authoritative academic periodical in the international pain medicine field. Biennial WCP is the highest-level international academic event for pain medicine.

China’s Pain Medicine

China’s pain medicine plays a unique role in the world because of traditional Chinese medicine. Zhang Xiangtong, a late renowned neuroscientist and a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); and Han Jisheng, a professor at Peking University and a CAS member are a world-recognized leader in pain medicine, as well as the only Chinese pain experts named IASP honorary members over the past 50 years since the founding of IASP. Han has made internationally recognized achievements in the principle study and clinical application of acupuncture analgesia, offering the world a better understanding of acupuncture analgesia, an important discipline in traditional Chinese medicine. Since 2007, at the call of Han and with his efforts, China’s Ministry of Health issued a document requiring Chinese hospitals above the second class should establish the department of clinical pain (level-1 clinical department) for the first time, hence China’s pain medicine entered a new age and had a significant influence on world pain medicine. According to statistics, more than half of people in the world experienced varying degrees of torments and pains. Particularly, various refractory chronic pains such as cancer pain, diabetic pain and herpes zoster pain have seriously damaged public health and even threatened patients’ lives. As a new sector of modern medicine, pain medicine is recognized as one of the most important clinical subjects. Clinical pain medicine has even been described as a “sunrise medical industry” in recent decade, and is rising in China and the world.